WildConcept6

@Trmn8r Yeah but Darksidees Genesis was a prequel (like prequel prequel). After DS1 with War, we had gotten a solo game with everyone else (Death and Fury) that focused on what they were doing adjacent to DS1 and how that'd build up to a final conclusion. Throughout all the games we were given massive hints about Strife's goings ons that to me really hyped up the prospect of a game that'd do the same for Strife (focus on what he was doing alone adjacent to the events of DS1). I even remember when after the first teaser for Darksiders 4 (many moons ago) how all the forums and gaming sites were theory crafting about Strife's action gameplay and what his plot would be from all the clues in the other games and everything. I remember them mouth watering over rumors that Strife would play like DANTE from Devil May Cry. It's just unfortunate that they'd not do for Strife what they did for every other horse(wo)man.

@Fiendish-Beaver I did see your comment. Namely all the "No"s. What I didn't see is what you thought would come over. I'm still barely seeing that. It's a bit of a courtesy, but when someone asks a question please put the answer at the start 😭. Don't bury it into multiple different paragraphs... I already know what you don't think will come and why you don't think it will come. You've made that clearly in every comment here. What I didn't know is what you thought instead would come, because all I saw was vague "live service" and, as I had stated, I don't even know what live service games Sony has right now. The goal of my comment was to have more of a discussion and less of an argument. Like I said, I think everyone agrees here that Playstation is porting more games over. The only discrepancy is in "what" and I'd rather be positive and talk about what we think is porting over than what we think is not.

Okay so you think: GT7, Lego Horizon, and every future live service game day one or within a year? Okay. Wow. GT7 I can see especially if they just saw the success of Forza Horizon and see an opportunity with Motorsport on the wayside. Lego horizons is already everywhere but Xbox, so that I can easily see. Every future live service within a year or even day one though? To me that sounds more insane than a last gen single player game coming. If this is true Sony's timeline is interesting. We have a clear picture of Microsoft doing PC Xbox games last gen and then it took them until 2023 to start a multiplatform console strategy this gen. Sony's strategy would then be a little more erratic. Like lord, imagine if Xbox last gen just started PC ports for everything "case by case" and PS ports for live service within a year of release. That's a little baffling to me. That in five years we can get here with PS (live service games coming so soon to all platforms).

@Elbow I feel like the fact that Xbox will be "fine" if they go third party is important here and probably reveals more than we're letting it. The question is would Sony be fine if they go third party? Probably not right? At least not as is. Here's the thing, just like Microsoft, Sony is a publically traded stock company. Current numbers don't actually matter. What matters for them is growth. And in the console market we are seeing growth in consumer spending, but 1) none in new user aquistion and 2) a lot of that consumer spending is on third party games. And that sounds fine until you realize Sony spends a lot on exclusive first and third party content and partner publish a ton of games too, and their users time and money isn't really going toward those games. We've seen Sony's exclusive profit margins and they are really bad. Playstation in general is seeing a lot of revenue, but not as much and even then their profit isn't bad, but the way capitalism and stock companies are set up, it's the growth that matters. Playstation and Xbox have to constantly show MORE profit and the entire market stalling in terms of new users puts a big dent in that.

I see a lot of talk about how Xbox has built itself up with more studios and publishers, but not as much about how Playstation has tried to do the same. Playstation WANTS more successful live service games that make a killing in Microtransactions and player engagement, but all those plans blew up in their faces. Playstation bought Bungie specifically for their live service expertise and probably partially hoping that Destiny could be their Minecraft purchase or something. Instead they spent a LOT of money for Bungie to then implode. If you're a shareholder how does the current situation really sound? Shareholders aren't console warriors. They don't care that Playstation is out selling Xbox. They care that Playstation is making ooggles and ooggles MORE money for them.

I'm personally more concerned for the future of Playstation. Consoles aren't going away anytime soon, but they also don't seem to be permanent. They aren't attracting the brand new gamers (namely younger generations) and eventually we'll age out of them. To your point about circles, the casual audience doesn't care much for exclusives or even consoles at all. It's all fortnite, the other forever live service games, and mobile. Xbox is set for the future no matter what they do. Playstation is still finding that. And this doesn't mean they'll have to port every single exclusive, but they just in general don't seem to have a strong idea or plan yet for longevity (well they had one, and it didn't work, so now I imagine they're trying to strategize a new one).

@Fiendish-Beaver My genuine question to you is, what live service games does Sony have to port? I have NOT kept up with this this gen. This is the first time I didn't buy a PS console at all. I know the news that Sony invested a lot in live service and most were canceled either in development or post launch. All I know that exists now is Helldivers 2 and GT7 with fairgames coming. There's also the Marvel fighter from Guilty Gears devs but AFAIK that's more of a second party game like Death Stranding. Bungie and Marathon are more akin to Xbox's "multiplatform" ABK and Bethesda games. Marathon was always going to be multiplatform on Bungies terms. Playstation wouldn't be hiring a new role to maximize multiplatform profits for just that game. Not would they be introducing Playstation Publishing to Xbox through Helldivers 2. So in my head we're left with GT7 and Fairgames with the latter not being out yet. GT7 I can easily see, but what is Sony going to do Fairgames day one? That sounds impossible to me. Though then again this soon for Helldivers 2 also sounds impossible.

Anyway to reask the question, what specific games do you predict WILL come then. No more arguing over minuta. We all agree that more first party games from Sony are coming soon, and I'd say from these comments that we also all agree that the biggest no-brainer is live service. So what do you actually think is coming. Consider it enlightening someone who has like an inkling of an idea of what Sony's actually done on their platform this generation: what can I look forward to?

@Kaloudz Speaking of Nintendo, man these companies WISH they were Nintendo because they could stave things off by going full Nintendo and charging AAA ($60 to $80) prices for AA game budgets (really what seems like less than a AA budget sometimes) and having a similar pricing strategy for hardware. Except, we gamers choose not to give Playstation and especially Xbox the same consumer treatment as Nintendo. The Outer Worlds 2 got COOKED at $80 to the point that Microsoft isn't even doing an $80 COD. I'm not speaking about quality and we all know which is the bigger household name, but you cannot convince me that Mario Kart World costs more to make than the Outer Worlds 2. You can't convince me that Pokémon costs anywhere NEAR as much as other AAA games (this or last gen) to warrant a $60 price tag. Oh and they still get away with selling the same game TWICE and locking exclusive content behind each version. In that same vein imagine if Xbox could release a budget Series S at $500 and premium Series X at $800 and they both still sell out like hotcakes. And no, it's not because of exclusives. Because exclusives didn't magically make the WiiU sell even 15 million in it's five year lifetime. Nor did it help the 3DS. And even Sony couldn't adopt that strategy (the PS3 showed that). It's the brand loyalty we as gamers and consumers have chosen to give Nintendo over recent years especially. Nintendo is dominating in the nostalgia boom era. That said something else Nintendo is doing that all should is becoming a multimedia empire. Their franchises do so well in television, card games, mobile games, theme parks, and movies. Pokémon is like THE most valuable IP in the world because of this. I'm actually surprised Sony didn't achieve this status first considering what they are. Microsoft really needs to get on the ball with all the iconic IP they own now.

Not really a rumor. We KNOW Sony is "planning" to bring more games over. The obscurities of that plan is what's causing some people to crashout and others to become that one Always Sunny mailroom meme. I do find the situation hilarious, because this is where it's always been going this generation: "It's just PC ports." ; "It's just third party exclusives." ; "It's just licensed first party exclusives Sony has no choice over." ; "It's just second party games/partner exclusives." ; "It's just live service first party exclusives."

That's not even mentioning their comments about "believing in generations" and the Switch support. This is where the console market and gaming industry was always heading. Exclusives aren't a sustainable business practice between the rising costs and the additional barriers to entry they add. Really it's kinda baffling how fragmented console gaming has been since it's inception, especially when comparing it to other gaming platforms. There have been barriers not just between companies, but between consoles within the same ecosystem. And it's all led to the medium that was supposed to be a gateway into gaming becoming one of the least desired choices of new gamers. Today the biggest games aren't just on every console, they're on practically every computer device (tablets & smartphones, PC, consoles, and the cloud), and they are available with cross progression and cross play. They're also still supported on last gen consoles, which are now 12 years old. New gamers are choosing PCs or mobile devices and are projected to choose cloud; consoles aren't attracting new gamers and that's directly impacted both the importance and viability of console exclusives.

The only real option Microsoft and Sony have are to adopt some type of multiplatform strategy of expansion to find new customers. Anyway, more multiplatform games are coming from everyone. Eventually even Nintendo will do them (maybe in 10 years, but eventually). Frankly it's rather sad that some people are pushing against this. I don't there any other space aside from console gaming where people aggressively BEG for the entire space to be more fragmented with walled off exclusive content that you have the privelege of buying. The console wars was really psychological warfare against consumers, and the companies won: they successfully managed to weaponize gamers against one another and do so in a way where people bully each other for not playing on the same platform (as in not just Xbox or PS, but the same console generation). There's some beautiful irony in the fact that these companies biggest roadblock to more money, is the console warriors they cultivated through a toxic marketing culture.

Already have Helldivers 2 pre-ordered: I'm not too big on PVP, but I love PVE.

Honestly a lot later than I was expecting. I thought they'd announce an expansion for this fall and a PS5 release. That said 2 to 3 years console exclusivity would be a great timeline for every first party exclusive (at least the big ones like Starfield); like it'd give console warriors their bone and give Xbox their sales boost. Maybe part of the experiment is seeing the optimal time frame? Regardless of how long they take, they do all seem to be getting PS5 ports in the spring (for the most part).

I'm a little disappointed in Darksiders 4. I was hoping for a Strife solo game and THEN picking up with War's (DS1's) ending With Darksiders 5 to finish the series. Hard to tell just from that, but it'd be odd if the game is a Strife solo when the teaser is the line War had at the end of DS1 when they were all coming.

@BAMozzy yeah, I agree with everything stated. My original comment is just that I don't think we'd see the effects in gaming revenue specifically at the earnings report following release. They'll definitely talk about it and MUA users, but it's probably also not something we'd be able to easily judge how successful it is as outsiders. That and I'm curious how exactly Microsoft would classify it and the new age of gaming OEMs it's sure to kick off. Yeah it's ultimately the same either way, but it's interesting to think about.

@Fiendish-Beaver This is pretty normal. Maybe necessary legally speaking too? Microsoft shares their predictions for the next quarter at the end of every earnings call and with that they share predictions for every aspect tog the company. AFAIK every publically traded company does. All that was said was "Hey, we'll have a weaker Q1 this year than we did last year in XYZ business markets." I imagine a lot of consumer related businesses are making similar comments. Microsoft has made these exact comments tons of times. Shareholders are just owed this information as investors. There are ups and downs. And Microsoft isn't immune to global economic conditions.

@BAMozzy Okay, and what bucket would you put that in if you were Microsoft? Xbox gaming due to the license even though they wouldn't count the hardware itself? Windows OEM because it is still a windows 11 OEM PC? Something else entirely because it's as you say a licensed product? For that matter what bucket did the recent Xbox meta headset go into? Or do all the "made for Xbox" sticker accessories go into? I'd be surprised if they count as hardware in the same way Microsoft counts the hardware they make. That's all I'm saying about it: it'll be pretty difficult for us as outsiders to track and I think the software here is more important than the hardware. How it's viewed is a separate discussion and one that's rather moot as we can see how people are viewing it and how that's affecting perception of Xbox consoles (which is honestly an Xbox and Microsoft marketing discussion).

I have nothing intelligent to say, I just need to be sure everyone saw this and I need to make them linger on it for as long as I did: "Told the Dark Urge, everyone's favourite amnesiac, to stop talking about people 'back home' (you don't know where that is yet, bestie) and spoiling the game by mentioning their 'father', among other silly notions, in their overhead dialogues."

"We're going back to where it all began."
The taco??

Xbox PC & Xbox Cloud were literally perfect. There's no need to make them any more complicated than that too. Remember KISS: Keep it Short & Simple (& stupid honestly).

Xbox on PC is also a pretty weak name. If they want to succeed on PC, then they can't afford to sound like a second rate service that's just a side gig for Xbox. Xbox's native PC experiences should just be referred to as "Xbox PC" and be done with it. Just like their cloud game experiences should be called "Xbox Cloud", "XCloud", or at most "Xbox Cloud Gaming". And the best is the first most simple and to the point branding.

Good to see that Square isn't immediately disregarding their promise this time around. More multiplatform games for all!

Wait is the first Monster Hunter Stories on Xbox a surprise announcement from a Nintendo show?? Lovely times these are. It's gotten to the point where all the console shows will have a ton of multiplatform games and that's great for the industry especially after we lost e3.

@Millionski To be fair if you're Xbox and Activision Blizzard comes knocking with an offer for a total buyout, well you gotta at least ask daddy Microsoft. And if daddy Microsoft says yes, well that's all she wrote.

But yeah the answer is the sheer size. With Zenimax you could say they really just bought studios. I mean it was a parent company to the publisher that is BGS, but really Xbox just bought those studios. I mean yeah BGS is a publisher in its own right, but what I'm getting it is that it's just not remotely the size of Activision Blizzard. In fact Activision had "basically" gobbled up 2 Zenimax's (an exaggeration but not really) before the Microsoft acquisition. It's a lot harder for Xbox to integrate them. And there's just a larger volume of everything that needs to be considered. As a consumer, this definitely means nothing though. Which in other industries that'd matter less, but here in gaming we followed the court cases extensively and we were promised why it was a good thing. Meanwhile, reality is a little different.

@Ricky-Spanish I'm not sure Xbox would actually track it as their revenue. It'd probably just be a value added to Windows OEM. The ROG Xbox Ally is still a 100% ASUS produced device just with Microsoft's help, mainly on the software side. Microsoft probably cares less about raw sales and more about having an optimized proof of concept for their Xbox gaming mode. I thinn they want to make the Windows OEM more valuable and keep pace with valve whose now selling SteamOS to OEMs (and it both costs less than a windows license and gives a more optimized better performance gaming experience than windows). After the Xbox Ally launches, they'll bring the software updates to all handhelds. And I imagine further down the line we'll see more Xbox named windows gaming OEMs

I think some of the comments are missing that this is a prediction of a decline for Q1 of 2026 and Q1 2026 is OCTOBER 30, 2025. This is how businesses do stuff for... reasons (idk). The earnings report that just came out was for Q4 2025. And this is year over year, so Microsoft is saying that compared to Q1 2025 (October 2024), Microsoft is expecting less consumer spending overall across all their services. That makes sense. @BAMozzy hey don't feel bad about it. None of us can ever truly escape the dreaded politics or reality of what's happening in the world. There's also nothing to get dramatic about when these are the facts. Compared to last year the global economy is facing a lot more challenges and as a result people have less discretionary income to spend on what's ultimately a hobby. Gaming is also just not pumping out as much compared to last year (last year really felt like all those games that got delayed by COVID were coming out). GTA VI probably would've changed these predictions if not for the delay. And prior to October Xbox doesn't have any huge releases. COD is a November title this time around and even Keeper and Ninja Gaiden would've been out barely a week (well not even that for Keeper). There's also no new hardware (the ROG probably won't be sold by October 30 (maybe pre-orders will be out) but regardless I don't think that'd be counted in gaming revenue; probably windows OEM revenue as it's an ASUS manufactured, distributed, and sold product; ASUS, not Xbox Or Microsoft)).

The real significance to me is that gaming revenue has grown 10% you and we're now PUT of the massive ABK gains honey moon period. This shows Xbox's ability to grow beyond the massive boom they got from ABK and that it was indeed an investment.

The biggest concern from the earnings report overall is how well Microsoft is truly doing. Azure alone made 75 billion USD (that's how much ABK cost; more technically). And then you see all the recent cuts and the fact Satya Nadella himself said they were to "restructure for AI" and Microsoft's own researchers keep putting out jobs in danger of being replaced by AI. Phil Spencer as well stated that the Xbox layoffs and cancelations were coming at a time when Xbox was growing and doing better than ever. It's just all so bleak on the business and workplace side. As a consumer I can sit back and enjoy the games, and it's been a great year for first party releases from Xbox. But as a human being it's hard not to feel concerned in these times. It's certainly not just gaming, but the gaming industry is not immune and is a constant reminder of what's happening.

@huroma Its concerning, but not in the way people keep saying. For one we already know raw hardware sales are at least 30 million in 5 years. That's not bad. These are year over year percentage declines. What that means is that less people bought an Xbox this quarter this year than they did last year in the same quarter. That honestly doesn't say much when we don't know how many people bought an Xbox then. That's like saying I have 10% of "question mark". Then there's a LOT of reasons why hardware could be selling less this year in this quarter vs last year in the same quarter. Time is the most basic reason. With every year the Series consoles get older and people anticipate a new generation. This year also unfortunately saw price increases due to Trump's policies. Then there's the fact that last gen is still holding on. We saw PS's top sellers chart and a non zero number of games are still on last gen (GTA V & Minecraft) and some others are releasing cross Gen (COD). And that's only the paid games. There's still Microsoft's trash consumer marketing and poor regional support. And that's all BEFORE cloud gaming, day one PC, and multiplatform console releases. I think those three reasons in particular aren't really contributing as much as people want to think.

I'm disappointed in how nothing Xbox did or Playstation or Nintendo for that matter truly revitalized the console space. Like the best success we can point to is Nintendo, but they didn't really. They sorta just combined their handheld and home console market consolidating their user base. And that brought them up from the pitiful 13mil of the WiiU (in five years) and like 80 mil of the 3ds, but in terms of "growth" pure hardware sales are still much lower than peak for everyone. The Wii sold 100m and the DS like 150+ (so low balling 200m total) and yeah those would've had double dipping, but that's still another console sale. Nintendo doesn't have those number anymore and costs keep rising, so we see that cost put on gamers. We keep seeing the same for Xbox and PlayStation.

I don't suspect Xbox will go away. Microsoft reports higher player engagement than ever and higher spending than ever on their consoles specifically, but what Microsoft can't (none of them can) is really pull in NEW gamers. So stuff like subsidizing hardware and being aggressive with it makes less and less sense. I suspect Xbox will never do something like the Series S again nor will they do a mid gen upgrade like the Xbox One X. But they will probably continue to do their own proprietary hardware because that's a strong consumer base that continues to prove their value to the business. Then they'll just try to expand through a wider ecosystem that includes cloud and PC and other console platforms. My concern as a consumer is price related, but that's already worsening. Otherwise I don't expect Xbox consoles to disappear anytime soon.

It's the law so what can you do, right? Right? What I hate about all these "protect the children online" laws and initiatives, is that they don't work. At all. Everyone involved knows they don't work. Everyone's already talking about the privacy concerns with big companies, so I'll skirt that and just say kids are smart. And they're also very good at sharing information with one another. Already we have reports about these systems being bypassed and tricked. The only real way to improve online safety is to educate children and insist that their guardians are attentive and pay attention to what's on their phones (maybe don't even give them phones at early ages).

@HardRockGamer Not saying they need to hurry up or anything, but part of marketing is setting accurate expectations. Announcing it so early and Hollow Knihjt being so good (not like that's a bad thing, but it is a reality Hollow Knight didn't have to deal with) is just naturally going to set unrealistic explainations up for some people.

@Millionski ABK is your biggest sign that consolidation in of itself is a sign that the industry is shrinking. With that size of aquistion a lot of fat will be trimmed to bring it under Microsoft Gaming slowly. It'll be a while before it even feels incorporated. Plus the whole process was complicated by the FTC and CMA. And it also still came as the industry was shrinking and facing turmoil. Microsoft specifically is in a transitionary period moving toward their next cash cow (AI). Microsoft execs now probably wish they used that money for AI 🙃.

Also oh boy Sony's aquistions. They really got played by Bungie. Their live service push in general is a tragic tale. As consumers we can question ABK, but as a business Microsoft now has COD. They instantly got a new money boon. Sony now has... Destiny and oh gosh marathon. And Concord was reduced to atoms. Part of me wonders that if Live Service had succeeded and a few more Sony titles dotted that chart, then would they have even ported Helldivers 2.

Ya'll Forza Horizon 5 is four years old. Playground deserves all the flowers. Also, speaking of we seriously do need to acknowledge how many of those games are also super old. Minecraft and GTA V were literally originally Xbox 360 games. People talk about the state of the industry, and I mean there it is: most people are still playing the same handful of games. That's gotta make it so hard for any new individual game to succeed. It's probably a big reason why so many publishers are doing multiplatform day one.

Also worth acknowledging is that this really isn't all sunshine for Playstation. One of those games on that list they get 100% of the sales from and the others they get only 30%. I mean as a platform holder they do still get that benefit, but also as a publisher they are funding the development for their own games, funding all costs associated with distributing them, and finding increased competition on their own platform. If Xbox had kept all those first party games exclusive (including the newly acquired ones) except let's say COD and Minecraft, then how many gamers would abandon PS and how many would just have bought more PS exclusive games that Sony funded and gets more money from? I mean that's incredibly difficult to calculate and compare, but it's something to think about. Companies compete on their own storefront. Consumers only have so much time and money (and both are getting squeezed now more than ever), so is it necessarily a good thing to Sony how much time and money Microsoft is capturing on Playstation?

@Kilamanjaro it's been really strange recently with the "rollouts". The incubation time in the insider rings is much shorter than usual and less consistent than usual. I'm alpha skip ahead and didn't get game hubs until like right before public release. Cloud gaming on PC and play history also only just came to insiders a few weeks ago, but they're already pushing those out to general availability. It's... odd. They aren't getting that much time for feedback and bug fixes.

@kmtrain83 That can be said of any company and unfortunately the current laws in place give them all the power over not just our game licenses but even the hardware used to play them. The sentiment of gamers was NEVER in question. Nintendo today is selling the most consoles and still spitting in that sentiment. It's gotten to the point that a government is fighting them on the power they hold to brick consoles. Publishers in general haven't hesitated to shut down games to save on overhead. These companies aren't your friends. For now, I look at where Xbox is and has been and that makes me secure in its existence. Microsoft makes billions off Xbox. The console market on the whole I'd struggling to grow and Xbox isn't stealing any market share, but existing customers are spending more money and more time on Xbox. I don't see them just deleting such a large source of revenue on a whim. I can see them trying to convert existing customers and scaling back Xbox, but even then the length of life the Xbox One has had and confirmed existence of the next Xbox tells me it'll be a long time before I need to worry.

Expanding that, I really couldn't imagine buying a game on a console other than Xbox anymore. Like if it's not Xbox then I buy it on PC. Free cloud saves alone are too much of a necessity. Then any Xbox play anywhere title is an automatic Xbox buy for the maximum value + longevity. It's an even bigger boon with some games getting released in the owned games cloud gaming group.

@Millionski You know next gen is in 3 years by the most conservative estimate? I say that because the lines are already blurring so much even just internally. 1.5 years between launch and ports isn't that long and that time frame will only shorten as time goes on.

Also, one could argue that it's because Sony sees Microsoft's Xbox as such important competition that we're seeing a multiplatform platform push. Sony cannot be completely okay with their own store being controlled by Xbox owned games to the extent it is. Sony does get 30%, but that's all. And people have limited funds and time to spend on gaming. One could argue that Sony is now fighting for attention on their own store. Well that's not even an argument, we know it's the case. This is why they put so much money into live service in the first place. It's just that now, Xbox is a major player on the PS store. Who knows what "seeing XYZ" as competition could even look like by the PS6.

@Trmn8r It's already really unlikely it'll live up to the hype because of how long people have had to fester expectations. This is Starfield all over again. Or what will happen with Elder Scrolls 6.

Guys! Have some faith. Pretty sure they can't do after 2026 now because they have deals with both Xbox and Nintendo. The latter one is the Disney or Apple of gaming. I don't want to see them get sued into idk losing the gameplay patents for Silksong or whatever since Nintendo is like god in this sphere now.

Anyway, I was never into Hollow Knight massively, but I love that one YouTube channel all about Silksong news. For their sake I'm actually going to ignore what I just said and say I hope the game doesn't come until next Gen 😂.

I'm super curious to here how the Xbox mode experience is. I already have a lenovo legion go and just plan to make use of that when the update comes next year. I'm hyped to hear how much it optimizes the gaming experience. And even more so because whatever feedback Microsoft gets from the early adopters (Xbox ROG Ally buyers) will go into making my experience better once the update becomes more generally available across PC handhelds!

I actually don't think old single player game ports are too unlikely. Sony has put a lot less prestige on those games this generation. The sales they make on their platform alone don't fully justify the increasing budgets of those games. And the PC ports have done REALLY well without impacting console sales. It really just gives them a free remaster that they don't have to remaster. Like God of War 2018 is 7 years old now. People would've been more likely to buy a PS for Helldivers 2. So why not? Plus I think that if Playstation themselves are saying exclusives aren't as worth it anymore, then it's actually very likely that Disney pulls an MLB and tells Sony that they HAVE to port the licensed Marvel games. Or maybe Sony looks at those games' margins (they were really bad according to leaks) and say that between the license costs and the exuberant dev costs, they really want to sell those games a few million more times. And again Spider-Man 1 and Miles Morales aren't selling PS consoles anymore.

Of the live service stuff, well I mean they'd need to have live service stuff worth putting on other platforms first. I think a part of why they're doing Helldivers 2 so early (it's only been two years) is because they've been investing so much money in live service only for it almost all to blow up in their faces. Like if Bungie wasn't terrible and Marathon was on track to release, would they be this aggressive with multiplatform? Or would they just leave it Bungie and their cash cows? Instead they need to maximize their one major success. Maybe this was always the plan before marathon got messy, but regardless Sony has invested so much into live service and has not reaped that much reward from the experience. I wouldn't be surprised if the future live service games launch day one multiplatform everywhere because Sony REALLY just needs them to succeed at this point and exclusivity makes it harder for a live service online multilayer to succeed.

@Kaloudz Thank you for saying that! I'm really just someone who doesn't to stop myself from saying LITERALLY EVERYTHING that comes to mind 😂. It's not healthy.

Not sure about Among Us tbh. I just know everyone was playing it during the pandemic, and I remember that during one of the summer game fests the studio announced it did so well that they could fund other projects. But it's not something I was into so that's all I know. Haven't heard it's name in a while, so who knows maybe that was just a fad and they're bankrupt now.

Oh man, Genshin took over the world during the pandemic. I was in university at the time and everyone was playing it. I studied abroad and went to the UK (from the US) AND EVERYONE WAS PLAYING IT. There were tournaments. Like official tournaments. In university. It was one of those gacha games but also played more like a console level open world RPG. And it was available on mobile devices, PCs, and PS5s. People loved it and to me it was the sign that there really is a strong desire to play those higher quality PVE or single player games (not just PVP experiences), but reaching the audience is difficult. Most people have smartphones, but a lot still don't have consoles or a high end gaming PC. As of June, Genshin Impact (according to a quick search) has over 237 million lifetime downloads. I think that's nearly more than the total number of consoles sold this gen. What is it 150m Switches (not counting switch 2), 75+ PS5, and 30+ Series X|S? Okay, so it's not quite more but it being close is wild. Granted it is a free mobile game, but that's kinda the point. That's where the industry is seeing massive numbers, and that matters a lot to the future of traditional gaming.

@DaveTheRave What does "it" refer to in response to my comment?

@Millionski Yh, I saw that. I knew they'd be making this move after Helldivers 2, and it seems like they're preparing for more multiplatform endeavors. The focus of the job listing is in maximizing financial success, so they'll probably be looking at what makes sense to port to what platform, when to port it, and how to market it so it has the best sales. To me this is a battle for control Sony has been losing this gen. It started with their third party partners increasingly choosing more platforms (some publicly calling an exclusive deal a mistake (well square)), then MLB the Show their own licensed game being forced to go to Xbox, and that was all while they pursued multiple platform releases themselves for switch and mostly PC. And now Helldivers 2 on Xbox. I think especially after their live service push failed, which was their massive plan to counteract the stupid small margins on their flagship single player games and maximize profits on PS, they've just recognized that they can't sustain themselves on exclusives like they once could. Exclusives just aren't as valuable anymore (they aren't leading to as many new console sales), but they have become more expensive to make.

@OldGamer999 With Nintendo the biggest thing is that they're just fine being small. Like you have to realize that even though the switch had the most successful raw hardware sales, Nintendo makes the LEAST amount of total revenue out of all three. They've been making less than Xbox since like the Xbox One, that utter failure of a console. Now margins are their own thing, but the difference in gaming revenue is massive (like several billion last I checked a couple years ago (a quick search, so not sure how accurate, said Nintendo reported 8 billion gaming revenue last and for comparison pre-ABK Xbox was 15 billion on average and now they're at a 20 billion average)). They're fine with their size though. They aren't a four trillion dollar software company that needs to convince their shareholders why gaming is a good investment nor are they a 150 billion dollar hardware company that needs to do the same. Both Microsoft and Sony are bigger companies with bigger ambitions that answer to shareholders who want to see a bigger return on advancement. Nintendo is just a well positioned much smaller company with a strong loyal fan base. It's not about what these companies need; it's about what their real owners (shareholders) want. Nintendo is incredibly well positioned FOR ITS SIZE and that's why they aren't in a rush to fall in line with the rest of the market. Actually looking at the change in market cap for Nintendo from last year to this, they're still below both other companies but they had a massive bump, so again they're probably really happy. They have all their merchandising and their movie and IP are doing well and Pokémon is literally the most valuable IP in the world. They're like the little big guy. And the little big buy is happy being less big than everyone else.

@Banjo- Not really weird. That's called the vocal minority and it's present in literally everything. Generally speaking the people you see squabbling about anything online are the vocal minority. Most people don't care enough to go online and talk about something extensively. Me personally I just have a bad habit of not being able to ignore comments I feel the need to "correct" (rude shorthand of saying I'm too opinionated for my own good and I let it suck up time I could be using for something productive or fun 😅). And that's one of the types of people you'd see online. Most people usually don't care or bother. Most people aren't even really aware. Like the chronically online gamer is NOT the average gamer and especially not the casual gamer. Most people don't follow what studios are doing or give a second thought to the companies happenings.

@BattleMonkey Exactly. People aren't wrong in that Xbox is in third place and as such they HAVE to be the one to make these choices first because they're the most vulnerable to make conditions. And they're the ones under the biggest parent company who has high demands. So yeah Xbox did PC ports first and Xbox did ports to other consoles first, but it's the same end result the entire industry is moving toward. Even Nintendo will one day choose to put their first party games on more platforms. They're just the least vulnerable to market conditions being in a niche (Sony has even stated they don't see Nintendo as competition), heavily controlling game costs (their games don't cost nearly as much to make but they charge the same price as Sony and Xbox now), and just being a smaller company that doesn't care that they don't make as much money. Despite selling less hardware, Xbox has been making several billion more in USD than Nintendo since the Xbox One generation. The Xbox Series generation has sold a fifth of the Switch and yet even before ABK Xbox was reaching new heights of 16 billion USD. It's just that Microsoft as a company is always seeking more profit and game development costs along with a stagnat console market has destroyed margins and made that difficut. So now they're seeking to expand to new markets and customer bases entirely. And their data shows that doesn't harm their own console install base enough that it eats their bottom line. For the live service games their data shows that porting to PS has boosted user engagement on Xbox consoles (as well as PC). That makes the move a no brainer for the third place console during a time when new gamers aren't really picking up consoles at all.

@kmtrain83 I think that's a valid feeling: I want Xbox to keep making Xboxes. What I don't understand as valid is feeling personally betrayed because Microsoft is choosing a multiplatform strategy. I also don't understand the thinking that Xbox is going to disappear overnight when the reality is that they continue to see the most third party support ever this generation. Not to mention that PS is doing the same by releasing on Switch, PC, and now Xbox. Playstation is choosing to publish their two year old exclusive IP on Xbox due to popular demand (they aren't a charity and certainly not one for Xbox).

Xbox now isn't Atari or Sega then. The Series consoles are a "failure" at over 30 million sales in five years. That's more than most consoles have achieved in a lifetime. That's more than the GameCube did in its lifetime and OVER twice as much as the WiiU did in its lifetime. I don't want Xbox to disappear. I get that. But I also don't feel betrayed because Microsoft is choosing to pursue a multiplatform strategy when that's what the entire industry is doing. I'd feel more concerned if they tried pretending the industry wasn't changing rapidly. Gaming now isn't like how it was then. Like what even are generations? MOST games are still releasing on the Xbox One (it's been 12 years) and even the big flagships are sometimes still day one on Xbox One or will get ports. COD is still on Xbox One. We're not expecting a major shift until GTA VI next year. The Series consoles will last at least that long and the next gen Xbox (which is already confirmed) will probably see support for a minimum of 15 years. I don't expect Microsoft to abandon Xbox hardware, but I certainly think they'll be less aggressive having acknowledged people are happy where they are. I just don't feel betrayed that they're adopting a very successful business strategy that also means more people get to play some fantastic games.

Good lord Satya, what was the point of this? All he did was confirm everything everyone has been saying: Microsoft is financially doing better than ever and yet they cut their workforce, and some services, to invest in AI. What he didn't acknowledge is that everyone HATES this. This is a good time to remind people that CEOs don't work for us or even the company they are CEO over; they work exclusively for the shareholders. Long term sustainable growth doesn't really matter to shareholders. What matters is making their investment more valuable. Under this system CEOs are encouraged to cut corners and cut employees and chase trends to keep shareholders happy. I don't think this is a good move for Microsoft period, and the company has continuously given up major ground to cut corners and keep shareholders happy. I mean it works in this awful late stage capitalism kinda way, but it's not building the company for long term success as they like to flaunt. Microsoft is shooting off its own legs to invest in the current speculative hot topic. You're doing all of this Satya, to get a running start in a race that you already lost. That money could better spent setting Microsoft up for sustainable long term healthy success and growth. That money could be invested in industries like gaming, which is still the biggest entertainment industry with massive projected growth through cloud and mobile. And imagine that Microsoft could be reaping even more money now if they'd just kept with the Windows Phone. The Windows Phone, also known as the product Satya admitted was a mistake to abandon. Now Microsoft hasn't a single foothold in mobile as they try to reach consumers with everything from gaming to AI. But all that matters is the short term I guess. Satya can get a pat on tbe back when he tells how it was a bad decision to invest so much money on AI 5 years in the future.

A lot stock put into reviews scores. It makes me think back to when I was a kid. Literally all the games I played the most and had the most fun in now have like an 8 or lower. Same goes for movies. I suppose it speaks to how many options are in the industry now. Time is valuable. Something else I find really interesting is that the OG Oblivion is sitting at a 94 critic score and 8.5 user score on meta critic, and the remastered has an 80 and 7.5 in the same respective areas? That's super interesting to me, especially considering the massive vocal praise and high player numbers the game has gotten. I do like game pass for taking away the barrier in just trying games I'm less sure I'll enjoy. And it does make sense to me that with the cost of games these days and the vast array of options people have (I mean most people do just keep playing their favorite live service, so these games now have to do the extra work of tearing people away from those experiences they already love). It's also just such a change to me. Or maybe this was always the case and kid me just wasn't online enough 🤔.

@fatpunkslim tfw Xbox Series X|S now has more mainline Final Fantasy entries than any other modern console (gotta love backwards compatibility). All that's missing the remakes!

I do genuinely like Xbox Game Pass leading the charge because that service treats itself as an option. There's no gate locked exclusive GP only games and it isn't an all you can eat buffet. Imagine if PS Now was the dominant player here. Like as in before it lowered its price and added games you could download. Even now Nintendo and Sony lock backwards compatibility behind their services. Even Apple Arcade does exclusive subscription only games. The most Xbox has is the recent retro classics.

What is unfortunate though is that game subscription services won't take off until Apple and Google are forced to play ball. Xbox clearly does still want to have a mobile store and more than that native cloud gaming on their app. But both face different blocks on the apple and Google store meaning people have to seek out the web experience. An XCloud Game Pass only tier and native support on iOS and Android would really skyrocket things.

I don't think Xbox fans should be worried in general. Like even when it was suggested Sony could buy the fromsoftware parent company, do we really think Sony spends that much money on something and then makes it less valuable? In this day and age when even they've caved and porting games to PC, Switch, and now Xbox? I just wouldn't stress. All these companies care about is money and that's increasingly meaning a multiplatform game release strategy. Maybe anime viewer fans in the west should be with the empire Sony has built there with crunchyroll and funimation.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner "It will count on Xbox unlike black myth player numbers."
I'm confused and my brain insists I be not confused. What are you trying to say here?

I played it on the cloud (it's recently felt native between my fibre internet and better XCloud) and boy am I not good at souls like. Like Wo Long, I'll admire this game from afar.

@Jenkinss The technical debt and awful in game economy/store killed it a first time. Then the studio figured it out and had the content and story and everything for a great multiplayer experience.... and Xbox just ignored it. I knew Halo Infinite was dead when the Infection update wasn't at the Xbox Games Showcase that year, while games LIKE Overwatch, Eso, and F76 were there with nothing live service updates. It was confirmed for me when Microsoft cut their funding and they stopped the story cutscenes. Microsoft did not even give the game a chance.

I mean the only real difference would've been that the staff constantly changing wouldn't have to learn a new engine. But the root issue of doing that is still failing to build a studio culture. Halo Infinite was sabatoged every step of the way by Microsoft. The new proprietary engine wasn't the issue, but forcing the studio to make the next flagship game on a new engine while also using temporary workers was. 343 should've made a smaller AA Halo game first using the new engine and more importantly they should've been allowed to build up with permanent staff. I feel like we saw the same issue with The Initiative. You can't make a brand new studio and tell them their first project is a AAAA worthy flagship title based on a beloved IP. The studio needed to build an internal culture first and learn how its creatives work together.

@Millionski I'm curious, do you feel similarly about this with other products? Are you Android user who feels disrespected that Google Maps is on Apple products? Or YouTube? Are you an Apple user who got mad when Apple allowed RCS messaging (which does everything imessage does without being limited to Apple only devices)? Or when the Apple Office suite went to the web? Or that Apple Music and Apple TV are available everywhere? Are you a WB fan whose angry that the Gumball revival is exclusively on Hulu (a Disney owned property). Are you truly that attached to for-profit-public-stock-businesses? Because I wouldn't recommend that. Even then in comparison, how is Xbox disrespecting you? If you play their live service games then you have more people to play with. If you like the single player games then you should be happy that more people get to celebrate them. Xbox fans for years have complained about the Xbox tax. Well, here it is on display. Take for example Forza Horizon 5 which everyone said deserved more awards and fanfare. Well, now it's getting that because people are divorcing it from console war nonsense and reality is proving that Forza Horizon 5 is undoubtedly one of the greatest games of this generation (at least according to sales). Xbox isn't taking these games away from you. Nor are they backing down on supporting the console platform. The console FACTUALLY has more support from third and first parties than ever. There are more games on the platform than ever including many PS or Nintendo console exclusives people never expected. We now even have Playstation caving and choosing to port an IP they 100% own under their own publishing brand using their own studio. And Helldivers 2 is only 2 years old (being generous).

I really don't get it. There's a lot to be worried about with gaming right now, but to me this isn't it. Now the reasons behind why everyone in the industry is doing it is worth discussing. But I can't say I look at what's happening and feel like a second class citizen. I feel I'm treated better as a gamer primarily on Xbox now than I ever was on my 360 or Xbox One.